For First Nations, there is a need for access to resources that will facilitate dialogue and networking across the north and encourage the sharing of knowledge and experiences on elements of socially responsible economic development, for example, Impact and Benefit Agreements, contract negotiations, acts and regulations, and environmental and social issues. For business, understanding how Aboriginal traditional knowledge and culture influence economic decisions and agreements is a critical and often daunting process; this is true of both large and small companies.

Yet as experience has demonstrated again and again, misunderstanding and failure to acquire that understanding can prove very costly and result in protracted delays and failure. Thus, for business, there is also a need for access to knowledge resources and tools that will provide a reliable guide to building ethically grounded relationships with those who will be impacted by their activities in the north, from initial contact through project implementation. With the goals of meeting these needs, our dissemination project has three elements.

First, we propose to begin the task of facilitating access to the growing body of knowledge setting out standards and benchmarks for ethically responsible mining. To accomplish this goal, we plan to use advanced electronic learning tools, building on and developing CBERN's current website. Our partner for this aspect of the project is York University's Advanced Broadband Learning Project, one of Canadas' most experience broadband learning organizations. We propose to focus on mining because natural resources are a valuable asset on which future economic development in the north can be expected to be based at least in part. It is also a field of knowledge in which CBERN has developed significant resources and in which CBERN participants are doing significant research.

Second, we propose to identify networks and organizations in the north that have developed or are developing websites with sustainable development and ethical investment themes and a knowledge mobilization and knowledge transfer function. Our goal here is to ensure that we avoid duplication and build on what has already been achieved. This task is particularly important in as much as research to date suggests that efforts to improve communication tools of the sort we envisage are currently rather fragmented and uncoordinated.

Third, we propose to engage in an on-going process designed to evaluate the effectiveness of electronic learning tools for engaging northern communities, groups and First Nations. This task is crucially important because, no matter how sophisticated, electronic communication tools are of no value unless they are actually used and valued by those for whom they are intended to provide benefits.

The project will be guided by: Wesley Cragg who is Project Director for the Canadian Business Ethics Research Network and whose field of expertise is business ethics; and Ben Bradshaw, Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Guelph whose field of research is responsible mining in the Canadian north, and especially the use and efficacy of Impact and Benefit Agreements. Both applicants have worked extensively with First Nations on economic development issues. The applicants will be guided by: an interdisciplinary team of academics with distinguished records of research in areas related to the project's theme; two First Nations, the Naskapi and the Missanabie Cree and their Chiefs, Philip Einish, and Glenn Nolan; and a experienced and distinguished group of leaders drawn from business, government, and the voluntary sectors.